Leading Post Production Facilities Save Customers Time and Money Finishing High Profile Projects on Avid DS Nitris Systems

Tewksbury, Mass, 2008-07-18
Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced that a majority of today’s popular film, television and commercial projects such as 2008 Cannes award-winning Three Monkeys, Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, NBC’s Law and Order, truTV’s Black Gold and ESPN’s E:60, are finished on Avid® DS Nitris® systems. With an integrated toolset for advanced compositing, visual effects, conform and finishing, Avid DS Nitris systems enable facility-level customers to work more productively and finish projects against tight deadlines, without having to tie up several edit bays. Facilities and production companies currently using Avid DS Nitris as a part of their overall workflow include: FotoKem, Bluefoot Entertainment, Ironik Design and Post, Kappa Studios, Inc., MAX Post, Serious Robots and The Post Group.

Recent projects that have been finished on Avid DS Nitris systems include:

ESPN’s E:60, The Masters Tournament (features and teasers) and British Open (teasers)

European Drama Network’s The Mandrake Root

FOX’s Prison Break

FOX Reality’s Rob & Amber: Against the Odds

History Channel’s Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers

Lower Learning

National Geographic’s America’s Port and LA Hardhats

NBC’s America’s Toughest Jobs, Las Vegas, Law and Order, Law and Order Criminal Intent and Law and Order Special Victims Unit

North One Television’s Fifth Gear and The Gadget Show

Searchers 2.0 (Concorde-New Horizons)

Sony’s NFL on CBS pre/post game with Jim Nantz and Peyton Manning (teasers)

SpikeTV’s 1000 Ways to Die

TBN’s Christmas at Cadillac Jack’s

The Cell 2

The Tournament of Roses Parade

The Wordz Project (Pinlight)

Three Monkeys

Travelocity commercial spots

truTV’s Black Gold

Quotes:

“The Avid DS Nitris system is a workhorse for us. Within this one system, we can assemble and do color correction, titling and VFX work for our reality TV projects. Since the shows are edited on Avid Media Composer, we have a straight conform to the DS Nitris system. We often use the same graphics and titles on multiple shows, and I can pull the elements I need from the DS without having to import them separately into every show, which saves me hours of additional work. We also use DNxHD 220 for our online work and it’s an incredible cost savings for us. We don’t have to make heavy investments in additional storage, and I can have a whole season online in the system and still have room to start the next series. With the volume of footage we’re constantly handling here, that’s a huge benefit.”

“Avid DS Nitris gives us the ability to cater to a client's many developing needs. When a workstation can be so flexible and so powerful, it becomes the centerpiece for our company’s working model. With DS Nitris, we can offline a project of any flavor, then online that very project in the same box or receive a project that was offlined in another suite and take the online to the DS. For promo work, there’s nothing better on the market. Networks are governed by the clock, and when you have a limited amount of time to cut, color grade, mix audio, title and graphic a piece, Avid DS Nitris is your savior. Avid DS makes sense for us in every way imaginable and keeps our clients ahead of schedule and coming back for more.”

“DS Nitris plays a critical role here at Kappa, occupying a niche that no other solution can fill with the same ease and reliability. The integration of editing and compositing tools in one solution allows us to tackle jobs that would otherwise have to be split in two, if not three, different bays. Procedures that we did on a recent RED-project, like frame rate conversions and fixing certain shots by removing extraneous objects and replacing content on computer monitors, would be difficult if not outright impossible to do in solutions like Final Cut Pro.”

“Our customers have figured out that they can generally get more done in a DS Nitris bay, in less time, for less money per hour, than on any of our other systems here. That’s what’s really great about the DS – it allows us to create incredible client loyalty by consistently making our customers look good to their clients. Simply put, the DS system is incredibly powerful, extremely versatile and enables us to deliver what our customers need at the highest quality.”

About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid is a worldwide leader in tools for film, video, audio, 3D animation, gaming and broadcast professionals – as well as for home audio and video enthusiasts. Avid professional and consumer brands include Avid, Digidesign®, M-Audio®, Pinnacle Systems®, Sibelius®, Softimage® and Sundance Digital®. The vast majority of primetime television shows, feature films, commercials and chart-topping music hits are made using one or more Avid products. Whether used by seasoned professionals or beginning students, Avid’s products and services enable customers to work more efficiently, productively and creatively. Avid received an Oscar® statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid Film Composer® system for motion picture editing. For more information about the company’s Oscar, Grammy® and Emmy® award-winning products and services, visit www.avid.com, del.icio.us, Flickr, technorati and twitter; or connect with Avid on Facebook.